Another Ars Ultimate Budget Box

Some nice Friday afternoon reading for you; Ars Technica has another go at the Ultimate Budget Box, a cheap no-frills PC for minimum cash output. From the article: "Look around inside most corporate offices, where most computers need to handle a few Office documents and light Internet use. They don't need to be able to burn CDs or handle 3D-intensive games, but they do need to be reliable and affordable. Lots of consumers out there probably want a similar box--an appliance that lets them get onto the Internet, take care of e-mail, and create a few documents. For them, being able to burn a CD-RW would probably be nice, but anything beyond that is an extra. Low-cost, reliability, and quality are key. That is what the Ultimate Budget Box is about: not skimping on components, but not loading it up with features either." The final price? US$525.46

Comments

Re:final specs

[AuMatar]

Grandma really doesn't care. She just wants it to work. If anything Linux is better for her, its more stable, fewer viruses, and easier to do remote admin on.

I'm currently in stage 2 of 3 in getting my family off of Windows. They're already using Open Office and Firefox. They're actually happier with them than they were with IE and Office- when I told them I could block ads with Firefox their faces lit up. The next time they buy a computer, I am installing linux on it- just leave them a firefox and an office icon on their desktop and they won't care about the difference in colors. And it'll be a win for them, as I can just ssh into their box if they have problems. I'll just give them a no-privlidges account on it and I'm done.